Areta Wilkinson
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In 1991 Wilkinson received a Diploma in Craft Design and in 2001 she completed a Bachelor of Design from Unitec Institute of Technology, where she studied under the esteemed Pauline Bern.[3][2] In 2014 she completed a PhD in Fine Arts at Te Pūtahi-ā-Toi School of Māori Art, Knowledge and Education at Massey University in Palmerston North.[4][5]
Career
Wilkinson has been a practising jeweller for over 20 years and her work explores customary Māori adornment while pushing the boundaries of contemporary New Zealand jewellery practices.[6]
She was a lecturer at Unitec Institute of Technology from 1995 to 2008 and a lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology from 2008 to 2009.[7] "Her work emerges from the encounter of two things: contemporary jewelry, which she would define as a critical studio craft practice which makes objects that are grounded in an awareness of the body; and Maori systems of knowledge, which place people in specific relationships to each other and to the world and which sometimes use objects to mediate these connections."[8]
During the 1990s, she found support for her practice through the Fingers Collective, a contemporary New Zealand jewellery store and exhibition space, and through cofounding a shared studio Workshop6.[9]
Wilkinson has exhibited nationally and internationally and has work in both private and public institutions including Te Runanga-o-Ngāi Tahu, the Dowse Art Museum, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and the Auckland War Memorial Museum.[10][11][12]
In 2010, Wilkinson was artist in resident at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, where her research centred on wearable taonga (treasures) held in the museum's collection.[13] On 28 February 2016, Wilkinson gave a lecture with Alan Preston at the Pinakothek die Moderne in Munich Germany.[14] In 2017 Wilkinson returned to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology as a visiting fellow, and as Visiting Wolfson College Research Associate at University of Cambridge.[15]
Recognition
- 2015 Recipient of the Creative New Zealand Craft/Object Fellowship[16]
- 2012 Guest Judge for the Objective Art Awards 2012 Auckland Council Manukau Arts Centre
- 2009 Winner of The New Dowse Gold Award
- 2006 Premier Award winner of the Oceana Gold National Jewellery Awards.[2]
- 2004 Aotearoa /NZ Maori Delegation for 9th Festival of Pacific Arts in the Republic of Palau.
- 2002 Commissioned by Ngāi Tahu to make a gift for Queen Elizabeth who visited a Ngāi Tahu marae whilst on a Royal New Zealand Tour. The result was a brooch called Aoraki Lily that was made from family heirloom white heron kotuku feathers in the shape of the native flower, a Mount Cook Lilly.[2]
Selected exhibitions
- 2024-2025 Meditations (with Moorina Bonini (Yorta Yorta/Wurundjeri/Wiradjuri), Lily Dowd, Te Ara Minhinnick (Ngaati Te Ata)), City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi[17]
- 2020 Moa-Hunter Fashions, Christchurch Art Gallery;[18] Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art, Auckland Art Gallery[19]
- 2018 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA
- 2017 Repatriation (with Mark Adams), The National, Christchurch [13]
- 2016 Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, with Te Rongo Kirkwood, Auckland War Memorial Museum[20]
- 2015 ARCHIVES Te Wahi Pounamu (with Mark Adams), Dunedin Public Art Gallery[21]
- 2014–2015 Whakapaipai: Jewellery as Pepeha, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch; Objectspace, Auckland; The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt.[22][23]
- 2012 Pepeha Bartley and Company Art, Wellington[24]
- 2012 Collecting Contemporary, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa[25]
- 2003 Te Puāwai o Ngāi Tahu: Twelve contemporary Ngāi Tahu artists, Christchurch Art Gallery[26]
